Dreamed Reality
by Pirateofthenight
Summary: pgs 209-219 in Great and Terrible Beauty from Kartik's POV. R&R please


**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTER'S NOR ANY OF THE TALKING. THAT'S ALL FROM THE WONDERFUL MIND OF LIBBA BRAY.**

I shouldn't like her. I really shouldn't think of her as anything other then the girl that could ruin the world. Yet, why can't I seem to stop thinking of those piercing green eyes, that red hair. She really had no idea of her power, it just flowed from her. Not just her power from the Realms, no this power was natural and power that only some women possessed and all women coveted. Gemma. Her name brought a pleasant tingle to his spine. No, no I can't think of her like that, her couldn't think of her. I stopped pacing in the tent I was going to wear a hole in the floor and laid down closing my eyes, sleep maybe sleep. Her face swam into my mind quickly, that night by the lake, just that thin white shift.

"Urgh! Why? Why? Get a hold of yourself Kartik, she's a girl, she's part of the Order." Just keep saying that until it comes true. Oh come on man, you know you're lying.

It was quiet too quiet. Ithal and some of the others were drinking tonight, it shouldn't be quiet. I got up slowly after grabbing my knife and walked out of the tent, "What's going on?" I called while walking in the fire light. Oh you have got to be kidding me! There she stands, the beauty that haunts his dreams, pretty as you please in the middle of the night in a gypsy camp. She has to be slow in the head.

"Please we need to see Mother Elena." She looks even more terrified then that night in the chapel, and I thought I was scary. I knew I was stareing at her, British girls must be as dumb as everyone says.

Ithal holds up his hand, "Ah…this gadje is yours. I apologize, friend."

Was it really that easy to see, my love for her, obsession. No she is the enemy. Quickly I covered up the pause by scoffing. "She's not…" Kartik, you idiot. What do you think they are going to do to her? The same things you think about. "Yes, she is mine." Quickly I grabbed her wrist, funny this is the second time I have done this. I pulled her out of the circle towards me. Loud whistles and cheers follow her. Emilian grabbed her other wrist, my hand twitched towards the knife in my belt.

"How do we know she's yours? She does not seem so willing," he teases. "Perhaps she will come with me instead."

I couldn't do that. No I won't do that to her, to me. The other men laugh not believing the act much anymore. What do I do? Wait this is her own fault, messing around here after dark. No, you can't let them. Suddenly, her lips are on mine warm and moist, just like my dream. I've never felt anything like it, there is nothing else around us just her, the beautiful Gemma Doyle. Slowly, my tongue completely unattached to my brain enters her mouth. She is gone just as fast as she came, and is beet red.

"I see she is yours after all!" someone shouts, I don't take any notice.

"Yes, I'll take them to Mother Elena to have their fortunes told. Get back to drinking. It's their money we need, not their trouble." I walk them to Mother Elena's tent, stupid, stupid. How could I have done that? I will never live this down. Great, just great, trying to get her out of my head and she does that. Argh! Her blonde friend keeps looking back at us, the one that plays the dangerous game with Ithal. She is cauos and death ready to happen. She has the power of Gemma as well, but her's is wild and lethal, not cool and strong. No! Stop right there Kartik! I pull the tent flap open for them but pull Gemma aside.

"Just what do you think you're doing here?" I ask her sharply. Does she not realize what could have happened to her?

"Having my fortune told," I figured she would have come up with something better, "I apologize for my conduct, it was necessary under the circumstances. I hope you won't think me too forward." She turns that lovely shade of red again while looking at her feet. It is an odd look on her, humble.

I grab an acorn from the ground to stop staring and hit it with my cricket bat. I set my face to let nothing of my true feelings show to her, "I'll never hear the end of it from them later."

Her face loses some of it's color, "Sorry to have put you out on my behalf."

Trying to get some life back into her face I ask, "Where's the other one of your little foursome? Hiding in the woods?"

"She's ill." Her terseness surprises me. Maybe it is serious.

"Nothing serious, I hope." Her face pales even more and that mad look comes back to her eyes.

"Nothing serious, may I go in now?" she moves the flap back from the tent. I grab her wrist again.

"Do not do this again." My warning is for more then just the gypsy camp.

I walk off, get her out of your head. But the memory of her soft warm lips against mean burn into my memory. I stay walking until I know she is gone, seeing her again would unglue me. Gemma. Gemma. Gemma. How is it that I always manage to anger her, whenever I see her? Oh I know, I always manage to threaten her. Great, way to win her heart there Kartik. Wait what? No I do not want to win her heart, or any other part of her for that matter.

I saw her sobbing in the woods alone again, what was she crying about. Mother telling her silly nonsense, I didn't think her that slow. But then again what if it was more then that, something bigger. Stop it Kartik! What are you five listening to Amar telling you ghost stories? Amar. Dear Brother. I walk back to my tent, the men are too drunk to notice anything anymore. In my tent I lie down and fall into a deep sleep. She was there haunting my dreams yet again. She was pulling my one way, to a beautiful place a garden of sorts, but Amar's voice called from far away a place of cold winter.

Suddenly, I feel a pressure on my lips. My eyes open to her face, Gemma. I grab her and lay her on the mat with me on top of her. Gemma, Gemma, Gemma. She rises up to might my mouth, kissing me like she means it. I trace my fingertips against her soft white flesh. I inch my thumb toward her supple breast, her sigh is almost more then I can bear. I move her legs apart with my knee. Her mouth moves to my neck kissing it softly. My hand trails down her body.

"Wait…" she whispers.

My hand moves back to her chest, I start to kiss her again pinning her beneath me. She moves with me, not telling me to stop.

Her hand moves to my chest and pushes me back, I fall back, confused. I'm back in that garden being pulled and called.

I wake quickly, that dream. Gemma. I look next to me half expecting her to be there next to me. Of course she isn't, she's miles away in her room in Spence. But that dream, it was so real. Gemma.


End file.
